LIGHTS OUT! The worst time for your light to go out?

[socom1970]

About 20 years ago, I was out for a ride with my cousin in his pickup truck on a series of dirt roads in the backwoods of Tennessee. We were having a great time driving around on roads that were so old and grown-up with weeds and foliage that they were barely visible.

I had brought along my Mag-charger (really bright and tough, right?) for the ride. As it became increasingly dark, (and Tennessee backwoods get REALLY DARK at night!) we figured we should start back for home. Well, as he was driving through some pretty bad terrain, we heard the sound of doom. A flat tire! So we get out to fix it. I've got my Mag-charger, so I'm thinking we have plenty of light, right?

Well, about 4 minutes into the project, my Mag-charger dies. So, I'm trying to milk the last little bits of light from it while my cousin is moving as fast as he can while he can still see a little bit. That only lasted for about another couple of minutes. And where we were, it really was so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face that night. I had no backup, and he had no lights at all.

We ended up using his BIC lighter to see with while completing the tire-change. That was really scary, because not only could we not see anything, but Tennessee has all kinds of dangerous wildlife just hoping for an easy meal. Fortunately, we didn't hear or encounter anything bad that night.

From that night, I have NEVER been without at least two lights. I usually have three or four on my person. I even clip one to my swimming trunks when I go in our YMCA pool. (No windows in the big room, you just never know...)

 

[John_Galt]

When the (fresh!?!) Energizer alkaline batt's in my LD20 suddenly lose power on high mode, after ~30 minutes of use, while trying to find my way down 10 miles of muddy, tree covered trails, at 10:00 on a friday evening, and the light is duct taped to my helmet. :green:

Happened to me about a week ago. A buddy and I decided to go quad riding after I got off work. So, after about 3 hours of riding, (~9:00 pm), it suddenly gets dark enough to worry me about how to get out of the woods. So, we turned around. Around here, it starts to get dark about 9, and there is about 1/2 an hour of twilight after that. But not in the woods. There, it just gets DARK...
So at about 9:10, I stopped, and took my LD20 out of my pocket, and used some ducttape to secure it to the side of my helmet. This was actually working out pretty good, so I turned the light to "high" mode, and left it there. After about half an hour, tho, the lights steps down a mode. And we still had about 7-8 miles to go. Now, my friends quad is a Yamaha Grizzly 125, and has headlights, so up till this point, I had been in front, because his quad sits higher than mine, and his brake/running light is just high enough to mess with my night vision, blind me, but not illuminate the ground behind him. By the time we made it out of the woods, it was pitch black, and my LD20 had stepped down to low mode. Just enough light to idle along in first gear by. So now, I'm definitely looking into some brighter, longer lasting lights.

Definitley, though, I'm Murphy's favored son.. Hahaha...

 

[Mr. kydex]

John_Galt,

You probably already know this, but, the LD20 is a good light. You ought to try some Rechargable batteries (like Eneloop) or Lithiums. Then you would probably never have that happen again.

 

[John_Galt]

John_Galt,

You probably already know this, but, the LD20 is a good light. You ought to try some Rechargable batteries (like Eneloop) or Lithiums. Then you would probably never have that happen again.

I actually just got some for my birthday!:twothumbs They were at my local Rite-Aid, rebadged as precharged Duracell rechargeable batt's, with a 15 minute charger included. I made sure they were the rebadged Eneloops, not Duracell's own batt's, for quality...

 

[musket3]

I worked for a electric utility company in NJ for almost 40 years, long before LED lights were ever dreamed of. I worked as an electric meter installer in Hudson County, Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne, etc. If you would like to try out your latest super LED light, you can find some really nasty, dark basements there. I retired in 2006, started in 1967, and had a company issued Bright Star 2 D cell flashlight with a lower than standard output PR-6 incandescent bulb instead of the standard PR-2 bulb. The PR-6 used less current than the PR-2, for longer battery life. The batteries were the old carbon zinc type, not alkaline cells. Even then I tried upgrading my light. When Krypton bulbs came out, I bought them as well as a 5 D cell light from Radio Shack for $0.99. They were a good upgrade for the time. Well, one day I was removing meters from a vacant building in Jersey City and I had shut the main disconnect switch off to kill the power to the building, and the bulb on my light burned out. At least I had a spare. A spare bulb in the tail cap of the light, not a spare light. That was quite a thrill changing the bulb in total darkness. I can imagine how much better that job would be with the SureFire lights that I have now with my Malkoff M-60. I just bought a Pelican 7060 and love it. In my opinion the output is a lot more than 130 lumens.

 

[Mr Bigglow]

I've had some near misses with batteries, these are not those:

#1: In the basement of an abandoned inner city house ( a crackhouse in fact), windows painted out, and which had been subdivided into a crazy maze of rooms (think Buffalo Bill's place in Silence of the Lambs). Dropped my incan Scorpion and zap: I had to yell for help, fortunately I could. That's when I learned to carry a plainclothes duty backup.

#2: In the deep country home of some friends I had just started house sitting for. Old fashioned wiring, everything on one circuit, and you had to add up the amps before turning anything on- I unthinkingly hit the clothes dryer button on my first night and zap: literally PITCH dark and my flash was in my car, parked about 50 metres outside in the basically unfamiliar farm yard. Took me an embarassingly long time to grope my way to it, totally blind, but at least by some sort of miracle I either hadn't locked it or had the keys. Also fortunately, there were no witnesses but their two dogs, who in fact clearly caught the humour of the situation (I swear the critters were laughing at me afterwards). That's when I started to use an EDC 24/7/366.

#3: In the country again, sudden power blackout everywhere nearby, pitch dark again, had to find my way about 100 metres to my car so I could turn on my headlights and allow a group of people at the same meeting to find theirs, negotiating a parking lot with my new EDC. That's when I learned that, even with the (sort of) glory of being the only person with a flashlight in that situation, a Mag Solitaire is not an adequate EDC for the out-of-doors: I might as well have had a book of matches- in fact they might have worked better.

In other threads I have praised LEDs as a godsend in my life, the above are the specifics about why I feel that way.

 

[andyw513]

For me:

1. When trying to set up a tent after dark right before rain.

2. When you go out to your car at night and hear something in the woods.

3. A knock on your front door during a power outage.

4. Two miles deep inside a coal mine, while surveying distance in the return (like

being blindfolded in a rocky maze).

5. You're working on a water leak with a group of people, and your L2 with an SST-90

suddenly dies, while the guy with the $2 Rayovac brags on how bright his light is.

 

[Dreamer]

I still remember this clearly, I was with my ex-gf in a local museum and as soon as we're in the coffins from around the world exhibition area, the lights went off! It was pitch black and it was a weekday and there is not much visitors around. Imagine our fear....
I had no lights with me at that time and my ex was almost crying cause she was so scared. Luckily the security guards came and escort us out of the place. Now, I hv at least 2lights with me at all times.

 

[deKatt]

In my experience, right after the local tv weather report shows a line of severe thunderstorms heading for your house, and reports of a tornado on the ground. Luckily I had plenty of charged AA nimhs for the flashlights, and 2 UPS to power a radio.

 

[skyva]

It was 11pm on a warm night and I was getting ready for bed, so just wearing a dressing gown and no shoes. I am on 5 acres and the german shepherd has the run of the property at night. I hear her bark furiously at the front of the house, which is unusual. I wander out the front and about 10 feet from the porch and about 3 feet from the dog is a 3 foot long stripey snake. In my area that means tiger snake, so pretty deadly. I grab the dog and push her inside, hoping she wasn't bitten. The snake takes the opportunity and heads off. I start following it, bare feet, with my trusty tiablo A9 led torch, luckily in my pocket of the gown. I had been told by the snake catcher that he won't come unless you know where the snake is, and as I wasn't keen on having it live under a log/mower etc in my garden waiting to bite me, I set off in pursuit. I only had the torch, which is a thrower, to see by. This means I can keep my distance, but can't see what I am walking on (like another snake). My wife is ringing the catcher and wrangling the excited shepherd while holding our 3 month old baby. I am outside yelling for boots and another torch, as all I could think of was that I hadn't charged this one for a while, and with the rcr 123's with low voltage protection, they don't fade out, they go without warning, leaving me shoe-less in the dark with the snake.
We were lucky that the torch didn't let me down, the snake stayed holed up and the catcher was there in 10 minutes.
Pretty little fellow when someone else has him.
http://ocau.com/pix/hrce3
(thats not me)

 

[Burgess]

to Dreamer and Skyva --


Interesting stories !


Thank you for sharing them with us.


:twothumbs
_

 

[Zeruel]

.... My wife is ringing the catcher and wrangling the excited shepherd while holding our 3 month old baby.

I think she's in a more dangerous position than you.

 

[tolkaze]

Worst time? Underground coal mine, 20 something c/t's from the next nearest miner, cap lamp goes out and i can't remember which way i'm facing or where the transport was parked up. Luckily someone was traveling past and I managed to flag them down about 10 minutes later. Oh well

 

[andyw513]

Worst time? Underground coal mine, 20 something c/t's from the next nearest miner, cap lamp goes out and i can't remember which way i'm facing or where the transport was parked up. Luckily someone was traveling past and I managed to flag them down about 10 minutes later. Oh well

Coal mines are amazing works of art, and they're also amazing when explroing the intricate details that went into their contruction...until you're in the dark inside of one!